The Denver Nuggets have turned NBA legends Reggie Miller and Chris Webber into believers despite narrowly missing the playoffs the past two seasons.

Miller, a basketball Hall of Famer, and Webber, a likely future inductee, praised the Nuggets’ unselfish offense and cited last season’s devastating regular-season finale as grounds for motivation.

“Denver’s actually one of my favorite teams because I think they have a great home-court advantage in the way that they play,” Webber said on a Turner Sports conference call previewing the NBA season. “I think they learned a lot from losing in basically a one-game playoff last year in Minnesota.”

Webber, who predicted a No. 7 or No. 8 seed for the Nuggets, said he had concerns about how competitive the Western Conference would be but also noted how much the team’s roster still has to prove.

“I think they have a lot of guys that are fighting to prove who they are again, and (Paul) Millsap, who was hurt,” Webber said. “And I’m not sleeping on Isaiah Thomas. I’m going to keep on believing in him until the end.”

Webber’s confidence level — not to mention that of new TNT analyst Candace Parker, who doesn’t see the Nuggets making the postseason – paled in comparison to what Miller had to say about last year’s ninth-best team in the West. Miller raved about franchise center Nikola Jokic and believed that had Millsap been healthy, Denver was a postseason squad.

“So (Millsap) only played 30-plus games and you missed out on the playoffs by one game,” Miller said. “You’ve got the second-best big man in the game. I’ll put Joel Embiid No. 1. To me, Jokic is No. 2. You’ve got a fantastic young coach in Mike Malone, and I like what they’re doing by building and developing and re-signing their young talent.”

Miller was well-versed in the Nuggets’ offseason, which included signing Jokic to a five-year max contract and re-signing Will Barton.

“Gary Harris is an up-and-coming nice young player, Jamal Murray has come into his own as that starting point guard for the Nuggets,” Miller said. “Are they in the category of Golden State, Houston, Utah — I’ll even throw OKC — as my top four in the West? No. But they’re in that same category with LeBron (James) and the Lakers, New Orleans, Dallas, San Antonio, Pelicans.”

Miller had the Nuggets as high as No. 5 in this year’s playoffs – hardly a stretch considering they finished two games off the pace of last year’s No. 5 seed, the Utah Jazz.

“They’ll be No. 5 or No. 6 in the West,” Miller said. “And they’ll be making noise.”

Mike Singer is the Denver Nuggets beat writer for The Denver Post. A Cleveland native, he is also the former NBA editor at USA TODAY. He previously covered the Chicago Bulls for CSNChicago.com and worked at CBSSports.com.

Rather than duck out of the Nuggets’ locker room and veer left, down a long corridor that leads to the court, Denver’s newest acquisition Nick Young was aimlessly wandering toward the floor using the path typically reserved for the visiting team.